If you have the time, I really hope you’ll sign up as it is such a fun way to volunteer and support a terrific radio station. The station is at Santa Monica college and there is free parking, lots of delicious snacks and drinks and a lot of fun people to work with, all while helping the station meet its financial goals. I’m again practicing what I preach and have signed up for four shifts. I’m a morning person so I’ll be answering phone from 6:00 am to 8:00 am, 8/9, 8/11, 8/13 and 8/17. Join me!

Queensrÿche returns to Los Angeles on Friday night, bringing their latest creation to Club Nokia. Enter below to win your tickets to the show.

Progressive rock is about creating something. Not just the same old rock & roll with a 4/4 beat, but stretching the boundaries; trying new things. Queensrÿche has done it again, this time with their Cabaret.

Queensrÿche Cabaret is coming to Club Nokia on Friday, July 23. Geoff Tate and company will be joined onstage by caged go-go dancers, burlesque dancers, aerialists, jugglers, a contortionist and more. They’ll be performing the hits and never-before-heard selections woven together to tell a story in song. This show is being billed as “the first adults-only rock show,” and it will certainly be Queensrÿche as you’ve never seen them before.

As a special bonus, head over to BottleRock downtown (a couple of blocks from Club Nokia) before the show Friday night. Geoff Tate will be there in the lounge from noon to 4:00pm signing bottles of his own wine, Insania.

Want to see the show, courtesy of Blogging.LA? Leave me a note in the comments below telling me about your first time seeing Queensrÿche, or if this will be the first time, why you want to see this show. I’ll pick the winners and notify via email.

I’ll get things started. My first time was when I went to see Kiss at the Long Beach Arena in (I think) 1986. The opener was some unknown band called Queensrÿche. I knew nothing about them, but from the moment they hit the stage, I knew they were something special. I became an instant fan, and 24 years later Queensrÿche is still one of my favorite hard rock bands. Can’t wait to see the Cabaret!

Mitch Albom had Morrie; what do we have on Tuesdays? Ah, yes, Tuesday Night Cafe, a bi-monthly gathering of poets, musicians, writers, organizers, parents, their kids, their dogs, and whomever else happens to be walking by the Aratani Courtyard in Little Tokyo around 7:15pm. A revolving line-up of artists and spoken word performers wax or rap poetic about everything from their commute to being queer in a land of not-queers. Often, there’s playful bantering with you, audience member/non-passive observer, followed by striking poetry, followed by lively live music, followed by impromptu karaoke. And it’s only Tuesday!

Tonight’s lineup includes hip hop MTV journalist-turned-hip-hop-rapper Rocky Rivera and singer SueJin. The guy in the back painting and sketching while all this is going in? Is Alex Chiu (see here).

The Tuesday Night Project organizes and hosts the event; its mission is to crank open space for the community – particularly the Asian-Pacific Islander communities – to build relationships and forge bonds via art and music. In a town stuffed to the gills with the cement jungle, this space is a breath of fresh air. Go to the Cafe tonight, get fueled for the rest of the week, and the weekend will be here before you know it.

Your Tuesday starts at 7:15pm, but if you want to break the fourth wall and perform, sign-ups for the open mic start at 6:45. The Aratani Courtyard is on 120 Judge John Aliso, between 1st and Temple downtown. Just follow your ears.

Indie rock slash synthetic pop, with electrically charged guitars and pianos, is all the rage (blame Hot Chip). So is an inexplicably newfound turn-of-the-decade appreciation for Hall & Oates (blame our current fascination with the 1980s and/or Hugh Grant in Music & Lyrics). Mash the two together and you get The Bird and the Bee paying tribute to Hall & Oates this Friday at the El Rey. And guess who has tickets to give away?

For those unacquainted, the singing Bird is Inara George and the instrumentalist Bee is Greg Kurstin, and together they symbolize flowers and de-flowerings. They’re also homegrown – both hail from our fair city of Los Angeles. The pair have popped up on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack (before you hold this against them, The Postal Service was that show’s poster child for quite some time); they’ve opened for Lily Allen; and, after two albums, they will release a tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates later this month. The pre-release concert in support of the record is this Friday at the El Rey, and, as I mentioned, we have tickets to give away. To win, all you have to do is post your favorite Hall & Oates song. Include your email address, one that you check often, because that will make it easier to contact you if you win.

Full details of the show are here, but, as they say in the sweepstakes world (or, this is what I would say if I was in the sweepstakes world): enter first, buy later. Good luck!

Wednesdays are always a great night at the Bronson Bar if you like rock music (“only good stuff,” as Fred always says), no cover charge and people you actually want to hang out with. Pleasantly unusual for a bar in Hollywood, I say.

The Bronson Bar is not actually the name of the bar as far as I know. I think it’s just called The Bar, but people refer to it as the Bronson Bar, obviously because it’s located on Sunset at Bronson. The neon sign on the outside just says “cocktails” or “bar” or something like that. Anyway, don’t expect to see a sign that says, “Bronson Bar” out front, you got it? Now go rock out.

Willie Nelson’s tour made its annual stop in Los Angeles last night. Willie and family, along with Austin favorites Asleep At The Wheel, played before a packed house at Club Nokia at the L.A. Live complex. The two bands are touring together in support of their recent album, Willie and The Wheel.

Asleep At The Wheel began the evening with their signature western swing. About half-way through their opening set, Nelson joined the band on stage to perform “Bring It On Down To My House,” as well as other numbers from the recent album and his classic, “Pancho & Lefty.”

After a short break and stage reset, Willie returned with his own band (with Ray Benson of AATW sitting in on guitar.) He started his set with “Whiskey River” and with only a couple of momentary breaks to introduce the band, he rolled through 25 other hits including “Crazy” (which he wrote for Patsy Cline,) “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Me & Paul,” and “Beer For My Horses.” Not one to stand for the silliness of walking off only to be called back for an encore, when his set was finished he thanked the audience and waved goodbye as he left the stage.

Willie Nelson seems to tour incessantly and tirelessly, but at this show his 76 year old body seemed to be showing its age a bit. While still in great shape for a man of his years, Willie had a bit of a paunch evident beneath his tight t-shirt which hasn’t been noticeable in previous years. That aside, his voice is as strong as ever, his guitar picking seems to get even better with age, and there’s a gleam in his eye which suggests he’s not stopping any time soon. Nothing lasts forever, though, and this is a show you don’t want to miss. You should probably see Willie Nelson again (or for the first time) as soon as possible.

Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel perform tonight at the Fred Kavli Theatre in Thousand Oaks.

Motörhead rocked my ass off. As they’ve done for the last 34 years, Motörhead hit the road with one thing in mind: Everything Louder Than Everything Else. Well done, boys.

Motörhead headlined Club Nokia at LA Live last Friday night in front of a packed house. Nashville Pussy and the Reverend Horton Heat opened the show and started to build the energy in the room, but when Motörhead took the stage the crowd exploded.

LA MetBlogs gave away tickets to the show, and invited the ticket winners to write about their experiences. Their accounts and more photos after the break.

I just found out that LIGHTS will be performing at the Troubadour on November 3rd!

For those of you unfamiliar with LIGHTS, she’s a tiny, Canadian, World of Warcraft playing, keytar wielding, comic-book-heroine-slash-intergalactic-electropop-artist. In other words, she’s totally my dream best friend (no offense to my actual best friends, but come on, you guys really need to step it up).

LIGHTS’ debut album “The Listening” will be released tomorrow (10/6), but the album is streaming in its entirety on LIGHTS’ Myspace page right now, so go check it out.

But wait, there’s more! LIGHTS is also starring in the cutest animated comic series on MTV and MTV.com called “Audio Quest.” You can watch the first episode here. Read the rest of this entry →

Last night, I learned that this year’s Grand Avenue Festival is on hiatus so that the organizers can do some restructuring. From their website:

The Grand Avenue Partners, the association of organizations responsible for the annual Grand Avenue Festival, have decided to place the 2009 festival on hiatus and direct their collective efforts on assessing needs and possibly re-inventing the festival for 2010 and beyond.

Many of the Grand Avenue-based arts and cultural institutions featured in the Festival will continue to offer low-cost or free programming on Saturday, September 26, 2009 as well as offer ongoing community programs throughout the year.

A shame, to be sure. It’s is always nice to be able to wander Grand Avenue and take in performances from The Colburn School on over to the Cathedral. There were activities for kids, from creating art to making music and of course, all the food.

In fairness, last year’s event wasn’t exactly a fun time. It was ridiculously hot, but no shade available. This led to the indoor events being overcrowded. Many vendors neglected to show up, so there were many empty booths. Not to mention that despite all of the food vendors, there was no place for people to sit and eat. I can only hope that they event organizers are focusing on fixing these problems.

As for events this weekend, a quick glance at the calendars show only paid events. I’ve contacted people at some of the facilities and no one has any knowledge of free or ‘low-cost or free programming on Saturday, September 26, 2009′. I’ll update once I get more information.

Some of you may already know Telesonic Commander from their live Ustream shows (of which I am a frequent listener and fan). Based on those performances, I expect to see flashy jumpsuits, exotic mustaches and just a taste of loveless copulation. If you want to preview their sound, check out the track, “Game Set Match” here.

There will also be music by DJs D++, Delicious Mix and Aeon Flux, free giveaways by IHEARTCOMIX, photos by Matador y Toros and video visuals by Verdilak.

According to the event organizers, Upgrade is a night for “hip geeks” looking to get away from the crowded Hollywood spots and the 18+ dance clubs. The idea is to have a place where you can dance or just tuck your laptop into a dark corner and geek out while listening to some cool electro beats – everything from EBM to IDM, breakbeat to 8-Bit, Electroclash to Eurotrash.

Let Your Geek Flag Fly this Thursday Night

“While we will make sure the music is danceable, we also want to encourage people to bring their PDAs and laptops and just sit in one of Read the rest of this entry →

LACMAs Latin Sounds music series is winding down, with next week being the last concert of the season. This past Saturday, we were engaged by the wonderfully sad vocals of Esther Segovia. She sang tangos and waltzes popular in Argentina. The perfect music for a lazy Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles. Angelenos of all colors and ages danced to some of the most famous tangoes in the warm setting sun.

If you still haven’t made it to LACMA for the Latin Sounds series, you must pack up a picnic and plan to spend next Saturday on the lawn listening to Johnny Polanco y Su Conjunto Amistad.

Goldstaris offering HALF price tickets, only $32.95 if you buy them at Goldstar.com.

If you’re into funk, then you already know that this show is not to be missed – and at half-off, even you noob-to-moderate funkateers should get up off your seats and get down with us this Saturday. See you there, Funk Army!

So, my day job is at a radio station, and Eric Hutchinson’s coming in tomorrow to play a little live show in our in-studio performance space–and the viewing is so full that we’ve all been told there’s no more room. That’s the buzz on this guy–this show will sell out, and he’ll be playing way bigger venues in the future. (Haven’t heard him yet? Listen here.)

Then, totally unrelated to my work, Goldenvoice gave Metblogs some tickets to his concert Thursday, to give away! Lucky you!

A mellow evening of piano- and melodic-driven singer-songwriteriness, for fans of The Fray, Dave Matthews Band, the aforementioned Mayer, Jason Mraz, or Jack Johnson.